Cottonmouths
are pit vipers that use a well adapted heat seeking pit that lies
between its eyes and nose. This becomes very useful to the
cottonmouth allowing it to accurately strike seeking prey on
warm-blooded animals.

They are
also adapted to eating large meals, consuming prey that are larger
than their body size and weight. During times of excessive
eating they can store these big meals for long amounts of time which
may be why the cottonmouth shifts from being very abundant to
being scarce. When environmental temperature drop the
snake allows its own body temp to correlate with it by seeking other
cooler/warmer places within its habitat. Cottonmouths are well
adapted to conserving their energy. They seek cooler places when
they are trying to harness there energy since metabolic rate
decreases as body temp decreases. This makes them capable of being
able to fast for many months to even years. A study
done conducted by Steven Secor and Jarod Diamond showsthat some snakes including the cottonmouth will conserve energy
in other ways beyond thermoregulation. Some snakes that feed
infrequently and on large meals will essentially turn their gut
tissues off when in a non-feeding condition. This means that they
allow the cells lining their gut to atrophy (weaken/degenerate),
stop producing enzymes, and wait until food is present in the gut
before becoming active again. During this period of “gut
refurbishing” or “upregulation”, resting metabolic rates can skyrocket to seven times as great
as they were previous to feeding (Secor et al. 1994; Secor and
Diamond 1995)

The cottonmouth has various ways of offsetting rapid heat loss.
Coiling itself tight against its own body reduces the exposed
surface area. Following are various ways a cottonmouth has
been observed to sprawl out during warm/cool periods throughout a
given day or seasonal changes.

The cottonmouth produces a venomous
substrate of that is produced by the glands located by wear
the upper and lower jaws join. As the snake strikes and inserts its
fangs in the prey, the muscles surrounding the poison sacs contract
and squeeze the venom along ducts that lead to the base of the
fangs. The venom then travels through the snakes hollow fangs and
out a small opening at the tip of the fangs and into its prey.

The venom of the cottonmouth is
hemotoxic. This means that the venom breaks down and
destroys blood cells and other tissues and reduces
the ability of blood to coagulate or clot. This
results in a hemorrhage throughout any portion of
the circulatory system that has been penetrated by
the venom.